Coming to CAMHS

Just as people's bodies can become unwell, people's minds can become unwell too.

People in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) are trained health and social care professionals. They work with children and young people to help them cope when they are feeling sad, worried or troubled.

What is mental health?

Because we have the word 'mental' in our name, lots of people get worried when they find out they have been referred.

There is a lot of stigma about the word 'mental' and it can mean lots of different things. We use the word as a term to describe all the things to do with your mind, not to label you in any way.

Support and treatment

There are lots of different kinds of physical illness and different ways to treat them. There are also different types of mental health problems and different types of treatments for them. But mental health problems are something most people find hard to talk about.

To us, mental health means the same as physical health – we want to help children and young people to look after their mind just as well as they do their body.

You are not alone...

In the Isle of Man around 1 in 10 children and young people have problems with their mental health or emotional wellbeing at some stage.

Mental health problems are more common than you might think - three children in every classroom have a mental health problem.

This means that you are not alone, and many of these young people will have appointments with CAMHS too.